IPACBIS – Identifying Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease in the community using a panel of biomarkers among individuals with Subjective Memory Complaints
Comissió Europea (Programa Horizon 2020, Accions Marie Skłodowska-Curie). IPACBIS pretén verificar la fiabilitat de detectar amb una simple fotografia de la retina la probabilitat de desenvolupar la malaltia d’Alzheimer.
The IPACBIS study (Identifying Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease in the community using a panell of biomarkers among individuals with Subjective Memory Complaints) aims to assess the reliability of detecting the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in cognitively healthy individuals through a simple retinal photograph. The research project has been funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellowship under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, awarded to Dr Marta Marquié.
Alzheimer’s-related changes can be detected in the brain up to 20 years before the onset of symptoms. Nevertheless, most tests currently used to predict disease risk in asymptomatic individuals are costly and generally highly invasive. In contrast, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which is the focus of this research, is an affordable, fast and painless test that involves capturing an image of the back of the eye. Originally used in ophthalmology to diagnose eye diseases, OCT has also begun to be used in recent years to diagnose certain neurodegenerative disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
In this context, recent studies have shown that people with Alzheimer’s disease experience retinal thinning, suggesting a potential role for OCT as an Alzheimer’s biomarker. The IPACBIS study analyses retinal thickness in 200 cognitively healthy individuals who report subjective memory complaints, in order to determine whether OCT could serve as a predictive method. IPACBIS will complement data from the FACEHBI project (Fundació ACE Healthy Brain Initiative), led by Fundació ACE, by incorporating OCT into the assessments performed on participating volunteers.
Poorer visual health parameters
In fact, the IPACBIS study is also closely linked to another project led by Fundació ACE: NORFACE (Neuro-ophthalmology Research at Fundació ACE). As a result of this study, researchers from the Research Unit have demonstrated that individuals with dementia show poorer visual health parameters than those with lower levels of cognitive impairment. This was reported in an article published by the foundation’s specialists in 2019 in the journal Nature- Scientific Reports.
The article analysed visual health markers and retinal imaging findings obtained through Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in a sample of nearly 1,800 individuals with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment and dementia, assessed at the Fundació ACE Diagnostic Unit between 2016 and 2018.